


Reverse Reality

by L_E_Glazkov (PapaKapkan)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi, Murder, Mystery, NaNoWriMo, OCs - Freeform, Original Works - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-08-14 02:58:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16484741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PapaKapkan/pseuds/L_E_Glazkov
Summary: What happens...when you set foot in another reality?Chaos?Havoc?Love?Or is there nothing out there?what happens...when you chose your destiny rather than letting it be chosen by others?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Now I have this work posted on my wattpad as well, I feel strange posting this here, but oh well. This is my work for NaNoWriMo, I'll post this for now, but the rest I will post unedited on my wattpad. When I edit the story the rest will come out to Archive.

She carefully shoves her way through the crowd, careful  not to get her small feet stepped on as she goes down the street.  _ Just a couple more blocks, then I can see little Timmy and Mama again,  _ the young girl thinks to herself. She was ten, but Mama couldn’t afford to take her to school, not when she had to walk to work after and risk being late again. The little girl always hears her mama talking about the rent needing to be paid. She knew what happened to people who didn’t pay their rent, mama always points out the dingy men and women moving along the streets. Always shrouded in torn clothes and weather-battered bodies. The little girl ends up ducking out of the crowd to stand in an alley while some of the masses passed by. Glass shattered behind her in the alley. She gasps and turns around, she hears someone crying. 

 

Carefully she steps toward the sounds, unsure of how to proceed. She loosens her scarf as she peers around a dumpster. She clamps a gloved hand over her mouth as she tries to step back from the horrifying scene before her. Instead, the young girl catches her heel on a large stone on the ground. She falls back and down to the ground with a cry of terror. Two men in dark, thick looking coats and flat looking white masks rush over to the girl. They start to speak words that the girl cannot understand, another language, or even gibberish entirely. She is not certain. Her school dress was dirty now, the uniform was easy to clean however, she knows her mama won’t be happy about having to do more laundry. She feels tears pricking her eyes as she thinks about how angry her mama will be. The men settle on a decision, and she looks between them, too scared to ask what they were doing. 

  
The last thing she remembers is the darkness. _What will mama say when I don’t come home on time?_


	2. One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus Jensen and the mother of the murdered child meet. Magnus agrees on the case and contacts an old friend.

Magnus looks down at the papers in front of him. The woman, in a dirty diner apron and a yellowing shirt sits across from him, a 7 month old baby in her arms. She reeks of cigarettes, not much unlike himself, but clearly he at least has the decency to stand outside. He can smell on her skin and her clothes that she never opens up her house, preferring to sit at her kitchen table with her cigarettes, perhaps. He scrutinizes the papers again, looking between the woman and the few pages in front of him. 

 

“Are you  _ certain _ that this is all there is for this case?” he asks, picking up the hot mug of coffee nearby. He takes a sip as she lets out a disgruntled sound, her body shifting as she did so. 

 

“I’m terribly certain, Mr. Jensen. Now are you going to do some diggin’ and find out what the flying  _ fuck _ happened to my daughter? Or are you just gonna sit ‘ere and stare at it all night?” she said, her southern accent leaking into her voice as she spoke, she readjusts the child in her arms as he babbles softly. He already had done some digging on his own before she came in, after her original call. She moved out here from Louisiana about four months ago and has been doing odd and ends jobs to barely scrape by after her divorce with her ex-husband. He sips his coffee, nodding slowly as he does so. 

 

“Of course, I just have to be certain, it seems pretty clear to me that she died of a sudden heart failure, there’s not-”

“There’s not much to go on? Well, you better get digging, I will ask for my money back otherwise,  _ Mister. _ ” 

“Of course, I’ll be on it very shortly, now about your daughter… what was such a young girl such as herself doing out there alone anyways?” the woman shifts at his question, clearly embarrassed. 

 

“I figured she was old enough to go wanderin’ on her own, ok. I can’t keep an eye on her all the time, I can barely afford the goddamn  _ nanny _ , and she’s some deadbeat dropout with a kid o’ her own!” Magnus realizes this is a touchy subject, he wonders how she was able to get ahold of the money to even pay him, but he made his rule a long time ago. Never ask where they got the money, that’s their problem, not his. Although, his job  _ is _ to be nosy. He finds the irony in his rule hilarious, but he also remembers that he can’t be morally obligated if he knows how they acquired the money. He shoves the papers into a manilla envelope he had prepared for this case, although he is not too happy knowing that the folder isn’t as full as he would like it to be. 

 

“Ok, well why do you think she went into that alley?” 

 

“I don’t fuckin’ know, I  _ told _ her to come  _ straight _ home!” her anger nearly sets Magnus off, but she had paid quite a pretty penny upfront, he can’t turn her away now. 

 

“Alright, calm down, I’m trying to at least get some starting information, ma’am.” he holds up his hands in a surrendering position, she seems to relax down after that. 

 

“I  _ know _ she wasn’t back there for no good, someone took her back there, and they  _ killed  _ my baby girl.” she seethes. He figured this is better than never to offer her his deal. 

 

“Alright, well, I’ll do some more digging, Ms. McDougal. If I find anything or get any other questions about that day, I’ll call you. Don’t pester me or I will drop your case, got it?” he holds out his hand, ready to seal the deal between them. She hesitantly reaches out a hand after re-adjusting her son in her arms. 

 

“Got it. You better find something. It’s all I want. I know somebody killed her. My poor, baby girl.” she left the office promptly, leaving Magnus to his thoughts, and his minimal paperwork. On the one hand, it’s easy to handle… however, on the other… there really is next to  _ nothing _ for him to work with. He’s not surprised. Mommy drinks and smokes, has two kids and works three jobs. The kid was probably stressed and just stopped functioning  _ just like _ all the documents claimed. Sudden, yet strange, heart failure. They couldn’t figure out  _ why _ it had failed, was the problem. There were not drugs in her, nor any unusual substances that kids shouldn’t have. He sighs as he thinks it over again. The body still hadn’t been buried due to the mother making a fuss of them not looking into it good enough. He could nab up an old friend, if she’ll help him, and get to work. 

 

He pulls out an old cell phone, simple but does the work, and he pulled up an old contact name.  Dr. Petrova  the screen reads. Dialing the number, he prays she’s taking her summer out in the U.S. again. She does almost every year. He waits and waits, and finally the familiar voice answers the phone. 

 

“Allo, this is Ray Petrova speaking, how may I help you?” her tired voice answers, her Ukrainian accent thick with sleep. She must have just woken up. He smiles into the cell phone, as he watches the snow pile up on the windowsill. 

 

“Hey, I have a favor to ask you, for old time’s sake.” he speaks into the receiver, he could hear the silence as she thinks on what this means. He could almost see her playing with her long dark hair as she laid in her bed, the sun seeping into the room of her cute little summer home.

 

“Another one?” she sighs, her accent almost getting thicker. 

 

“Yeah, I need you to examine the body, figure out if it’s like what you saw back home.” A static silence filled the phone.

 

“Fine, but you remember how dangerous this could be? Right?” her voice whispered into his ear through the old device. He closes his eyes, the mug in his hands warming him only a little. 

 

“Yeah. I remember. Meet me at my office tonight. We’ll go at night.” 

 

“Affirmative. Just… be careful, ok Mags?” her concern bleeds into her voice. She can never hide it, she always cares. Perhaps even too much, but that’s the kind of energy he needs tonight. 

 

He flips his cell phone shut after she cuts off the call. As he stares out into the wintery waste he clutches his warm coffee even closer to him. What a horrible time of the year to lose your child, just weeks before Christmas. She’s gonna have it hard every year now, thanks to the holidays being so…  _ aggressively _ cheerful. He wonders what his life would have been like if he had stayed out in Norway with his uncle. He wonders if maybe… he shakes his head. No need to think about  _ that _ now. He loosens his grip on the mug, after holding on almost too tightly. He sighs, the pain returning to him for but a moment. He flicks the radio on as he sits down. The disgusting Christmas music giving him an idea. If it has to be thrown on him, why not go somewhere where there is no choice. 

 

The café.


	3. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik and Magnus meet. Something incredible happens. Terror. R U N.  
> Do not look behind you.   
> Do not examine the shadows.

Erik likes his job. He really, really, likes his job. He has to do it. For Emily, because she can’t do it. He thinks back to the dazed look in her eyes as he left her in their makeshift shelter in the woods. He remembered the bushcraft his father taught him in a paranoid prepper kind of way. He remembered how to build shelters and do things out in the woods, but Emily doesn’t. Emily is fragile, her mind and personality shattered and split into many pieces. Pieces that don’t  _ want _ to be put back together. He cleaned a table for a raggedly looking gentleman in a long coat and left him to his business, he recognizes the face as he stares at the man from behind the counter with the other barista. A preppy girl with long curly brown hair, skin as dark as melted chocolate, and brown eyes as bright as the sun on a sturdy oak tree. She prefers not to interact with her strangely inept coworker. He quite liked it that way, she pries her way into everyone’s business, collecting information on everyone she works with. Jerry almost wonders if she’s trying to blackmail all of them. Erik? He didn’t care. He truly had no energy to care in him. He was too concerned with making enough to feed himself and Emily for the week. He only ever worked one or two days a week for a few hours. 

 

After walking four miles and changing at the café he barely has the energy to handle the four hour shift they give him three times a week. He keeps himself clean at their little camp, but that doesn’t do much for his energy. He needs more money for food. To be able to feed both himself and Emily properly, he needs just a little more than he is getting. Like hell he is about to complain, however. He decides to approach the familiar man at the table while he moves to clean a table adjacent to him. Curiosity eats away at Erik. he can’t place why he is so familiar, and now he has to find out. Carefully he approaches him, making sure he is facing away from Tallulah, his coworker. The man had sharp features, dirty blonde hair, and visibly dark circles under his green eyes. The man had long, elegant fingers.  _ Fingers meant to play an instrument _ , he noted to himself. His frame was tall, but quite thin, not as thin as Erik, but close.  _ Perhaps he doesn’t eat much? _ , he reckons. His dull blue eyes scan over the man before he speaks. 

 

“I’m sorry to be a bother,” the man jumps, his frightened eyes look up at Erik, “but I noticed you looked incredibly familiar, do I…  _ know  _ you from somewhere?”

 

“Ah, maybe, I’m on every goddamn newspaper in the city, I’m one of the Private Investigators around here. Perhaps even known as ‘the best,’” he laughs, putting air quotes around the last part of the sentence. 

 

“Oh! You’re Detective Jensen then, I take it.” he responds, almost glad to know that he didn’t know this guy personally. He remembered seeing his face on the front page of this week’s paper, now. He was quite the talk of the city. He turns to leave when he feels the man’s thin fingers around his bicep. 

 

“Hey, have  you seen anything… strange?” he asked, gesturing him to sit. Erik sat, folding his hands in his lap, almost afraid to respond. He, did however think to anything he happened to notice on his little hike to town every morning. 

 

“Not… really, unless you can count my sister, the two of us alone are pretty strange. Other than that, no… did something happen?” 

 

“Hmm.” Magnus hummed, tapping his pen on the mug, “I guess you could say that, yeah.”

 

“Ah, so I take it you’re going to be vague about it then?” He made a move to stand, but Magnus stopped him. 

 

“I have to be vague,” he replied sharply, but then looked as if he regretted it. “My bad, forgive my sharpness, but I’m currently working on a case, and some strange things have been happening all around.”

 

“No big deal, I get it. An investigator like you has got to keep some things to himself, right? Otherwise somebody else could try and snatch up your cases from underneath you.” Erik responded. He didn’t relax, however. He knew that this man is busy, and he felt like he was intruding at this point. Tallulah was zeroing in on the scene unfolding. Erik couldn’t help but notice how deep Magnus’s forest green eyes seemed. He got taken from that train of thought by the investigator speaking again. 

 

“Hey, can you… I don’t know, just keep an eye on your surroundings, if anyone…  _ strange _ comes in here, lemme know, alright?” the investigator spoke quieter than before. Erik froze for a second, thinking about the words that had come out of his mouth. He nodded slowly, and Magnus let go of his arm. He shrugged back into the seat of the booth he had chosen and grabbed his coffee while Erik stood and moved over to clean another recently unoccupied table. The doors chimed. All three occupants of the cafe looked up. There was a tall figure who now stood at the counter, Tallulah’s face looked clammy as she asked the strange figure questions about what it was to order. 

 

The figure said nothing. In fact, it didn’t even move at all. Magnus stood fast from his booth, the screech of the table scooting forward to meet the other side of the booth seemed louder than anything Erik had ever heard. Everything seemed to move in slow motion from there, it felt like ages while the figure reached out a black gloved hand to grasp Tallulah’s throat, pulling her partially over the counter. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, Magnus had stopped moving towards the figure, instead turning around to grab his back and then as quickly as Tallulah slumped over the counter, presumably dead, he was being dragged out of the cafe by the investigator. He realized the man’s coat smelled like cigarettes and coffee beans. He looked behind him and the faceless figure had turned around to look at the two men, it had teleported to the door of the cafe, just within the threshold of it. Erik in turn started to drag the investigator towards his well hidden camp. 

 

The two plowed through the streets on foot, not caring if they ran into people, not caring if they slid on ice or slush as they ran for the edge of the woods just at the edge of the city. Magnus held onto the other as they ran, not caring where they were going, until they got there. Heavily breathing at the edge of the camp, Magnus’ long hair had fallen over his shoulders, having lost the hair tie that held his hair in place at the back of his head. Some twigs and cold dead leaves were tangled in the matted mess that had become his hair. Erik was not faring much better, both were covered in mud and both now were chilled from having fallen in the snow a few times. 

 

Magnus noted the younger woman that had peeked over the edge of the window of the incredibly well made survival shelter. It was clearly made for living in, and he was incredibly impressed with the handiwork and craftsmanship put into it. He leaned against a stack of logs kept under a little thing clearly meant to keep the wood dry. He wasn’t sure what to call it but he watched as Erik caught his own breath. The air that passed through his lips was visible, and his eyes were wide with horror. 

 

“What was that thing?” Erik said, locking eyes with Magnus. 

 

“I’m not sure, but this isn’t the first time I have heard of them. I will send my friend to examine your… coworker’s body as well. I just know that those things can take out cameras. Completely ruin all technology as well. But we are what they call the Seen, because we witnessed one of their acts. They will be hunting us.” he responded. Erik looked into the shelter. Magnus wondered who the woman was, and what she meant to him. He felt a bitter taste in his mouth as he suddenly felt like there were more eyes than were present on him. Like a thousand creatures watching from beyond. He tried to ignore it, but he gently grasped Erik’s arm before he slipped into the shelter.

 

“We need to leave here, we need to go see a friend of mine.” Magnus spoke, Erik nodded, and he looked inside the shelter. 

 

“Give me a minute, we will pack up our things. Emily is coming with us,” Erik responded, he slips inside and Magnus can hear him speaking quietly to the younger woman inside. She sounds sad to his own ears, but that could be for numerous reasons. He had seen her pale skin, he reasoned that perhaps she was sick.

 

After a few more moments of quiet whispering and quite a bit of shuffling around the two had come out of the shelter, the young woman, who he now knows is called Emily. The young woman had dark brown hair, blue eyes, and skin almost as white as the snow. The blue lines of her veins were visible in the cold air. She wore a worn green jacket with a fur collar, a grey knit beanie, blue jeans, and snow boots. Her hair was tied up into a ponytail with a black ribbon. Slung over her shoulder was a red duffel bag, and in her small hands, covered in fingerless gloves, was a teddy bear. A medium sized bear, light brown in color, that had seen  _ much _ better days. Around her neck was a small crystal pendant. Magnus looked to Erikur who nods.

 

“What now, hotshot? Where are we headed?” he spoke to the investigator. 

 

“The suburbs. There’s an old house there that was built in the forties. My friend lives there. She will help us out.” Magnus responded, waving the two after him. 


End file.
